Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Kaine in high spirits on visit to city, winery
Cabinet Community Day let the governor and his staff discuss issues with residents, businesses and representatives of different groups.
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Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times
Debra Vascik of Valhalla Vineyards shows Gov. Tim Kaine around Tuesday in Roanoke County. Kaine said wineries help keep the state's agricultural industry strong.
At the start of a packed day touring Roanoke Valley and Franklin County on Tuesday, it's clear that Gov. Tim Kaine and his cabinet members were looking forward to one stop in particular: local winery Valhalla Vineyards.
"We're going to go and learn about the industry statewide ... maybe sample briefly," Kaine said, to a laugh from his morning audience at the Dumas Center for Artistic & Cultural Development.
A few minutes later, his cabinet members introduced themselves:
>> Patrick Gottschalk, secretary of commerce and trade: "My primary responsibilities are economic development, interface with business, tourism, the Valhalla winery -- looking forward to that."
>> Robert Bloxom, secretary of agriculture and forestry: "I have lots of responsibilities in making sure that all of you are well-fed, and the grapes are ready to be harvested."
>> John Marshall, secretary of public safety: "I'll be responsible this afternoon that not only the cabinet makes it through the rest of the day but is able to remember the rest of the day."
>> Larry Roberts, counselor to the governor: "My job would be to bail out anybody who gets thrown in jail."
The comments were tongue-in-cheek -- the governor had only half a glass of 2002 Gotterdammerung, a merlot/cabernet franc blend -- but they helped underscore the duties of the various Cabinet members. And that was largely the point of Kaine's Cabinet Community Day visit to Roanoke.
This will be the seventh such visit statewide during the Kaine administration, which intends to visit each of eight regions of the state twice during Kaine's four-year term.
Like Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling's "Idearaiser" in Roanoke earlier this month, the idea behind the tour is getting the governor and his staff out of Richmond to discuss issues with residents, businesses and representatives of various other groups around the state.
"It's for us to come out and learn who we are together," Kaine said during his morning visit to the Dumas. "We've got five or six stops to learn about the challenges and the rest of the things going on in each region."
In addition to Valhalla and the Dumas Center, Kaine and his Cabinet visited the Virginia Veterans Care Center to talk about the one out of every 10 Virginians who are veterans; the Franklin Center for Advanced Learning & Research in Rocky Mount to talk about work force training; and Hollins University to hear from a public-private partnership that placed a 250-acre portion of Tinker Mountain under a conservation easement.
At the Dumas, Kaine spoke about the importance of nonprofit groups in providing services that the government and churches cannot. He said that groups such as Roanoke's Total Action Against Poverty demonstrate a "wonderful American tradition" of people working together to improve their lives for themselves and others.
Nonprofits "create a quality of life that makes people want to stay, want to visit and want to come to an area," Kaine said. He cited programs such as TAP's Head Start preschool program, which he said will play an important role in his pre-kindergarten proposal. Kaine's office will formally release that proposal Thursday.
After the speech, members of local nonprofits mingled with the governor and his Cabinet, swapping stories and business cards. Alison Drennan, who works with Commonwealth Catholic Charities, clutched a set of cards from various Cabinet officials. She said she appreciated the chance to network and look for opportunities to work with other nonprofit groups.
"We can be assets to one another," Drennan said. In particular, she said she was trying to speak to officials in education, agriculture, natural resources and commerce.
Susheela Shende, meanwhile, works with a consulting firm that helps nonprofit groups.
"I wanted to hear the governor talk," Shende said. "I think the best work in any community is done by the nonprofits. I'm invested -- this is sort of my baby."
The meeting at Valhalla tended more toward the private sector, as Kaine spoke about the growing role of Virginia wineries in preserving open space and keeping the state's agricultural industry strong.
As the meeting progressed, cabinet members seemed a bit intoxicated -- not from the winery's product or even Virginia's ranking as the fifth-largest producer of wine in the United States, but by the hazefree view from the winery's ridge 2,000 feet above the Roanoke Valley.
Aneesh Chopra, secretary of technology, exclaimed: "What a view!"
